Genesis 2:4

Man and Woman in the Garden

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD ^[a] God made them.

Genesis 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 2:4

These [are] the generations of the heavens and the earth,
when they were created
That is, the above account, delivered in the preceding chapter, is a history of the production of the heavens and earth, and of all things in them; the creation of them being a kind of generation, and the day of their creation a sort of birthday; see ( Genesis 5:1 ) ( Matthew 1:1 )

in the day that the Lord God made the earth, and the heavens;
meaning not any particular day, not the first day, in which the heavens and the earth were created; but referring to the whole time of the six days, in which everything in them, and relating to them, were made. Here another name is added to God, his name "Jehovah", expressive of his being and perfections, particularly his eternity and immutability, being the everlasting and unchangeable "I am", which is, and was, and is to come: this name, according to the Jews, is not to be pronounced, and therefore they put the points of "Adonai", directing it so to be read; and these two names, "Jehovah Elohim", or "Adonai" and "Elohim", with them make the full and perfect name of God, and which they observe is here very pertinently given him, upon the perfection and completion of his works.

Genesis 2:4 In-Context

2 And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.

3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made them.

5 Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted, for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

6 But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Footnotes

• [a]. LORD or GOD, with capital letters, represents the proper name of the God of Israel and the one true God, transliterated from the Hebrew as YHWH; here and throughout the Scriptures.